Loews Will Acquire M&r

The Only Major Locally Owned Movie House Chain

September 07, 1988|By Charles Storch.

M&R Theatres, the Chicago area`s second-largest chain of movie houses and the only major one that is locally owned, has agreed to be acquired for an undisclosed sum by New York-based Loews Theatre Management Corp.

The agreement with Loews, a unit of Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc., was disclosed Tuesday. Reports surfaced earlier this summer that the two were in negotiations.

M&R`s purchase would be the latest in a rash of theater-chain acquisitions in the last few years, a trend led by companies that own or are allied to movie studios. Loews` parent owns two studios, Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures.

M&R operates 70 screens at 16 theaters in the Chicago area. It has been jointly owned by the Marks and Rosenfield families since 1950, although the Marks family had owned theaters on their own during the 1920s.

The two families will continue to own the Howard Bowl, the bowling alley at Howard and Clark streets they opened in 1941.

Four of M&R`s top executives will continue to manage the chain under Loews` ownership. They are Richard Rosenfield; his son, Steven; and brothers Jerrold and Louis Marks.

The purchase of M&R will give Loews 730 screens in about 205 locations across the country, with New York, Boston and Washington its largest markets. Loews currently has no theaters in the Chicago area.

The M&R deal is the second one in the Midwest for Loews in the last week. Last Tuesday, Loews said it planned to form a joint venture with Loeks Michigan Theatres Inc. that would own and operate 16 screens in the Detroit area, with another 18 screens planned in that area and 8 more for Holland, Mich.

Richard Rosenfield said Tuesday the sale to Loews would allow M&R to associate with ``a company with great growth potential.``

M&R has been approached in the past by prospective buyers. About two years ago, it briefly held talks with AMC Entertainment Inc., a Kansas City, Mo-based chain with some theaters here.

Cineplex Odeon Corp. of Toronto operates the largest chain here, having acquired the Plitt group in 1985 and the Essaness group in 1986. Cineplex is partly owned by MCA Inc., which owns the Universal Pictures studio.

A Cineplex spokeswoman said the chain has 168 screens in 51 locations in Illinois (most of them in the Chicago area) and 8 screens in 3 locations in northern Indiana.

That total doesn`t include two Near North Side theaters that are to open at the end of this month at 900 N. Michigan Ave. and an eight-screen complex in northwest suburban Vernon Hills to open next month.

M&R recently opened the eight-screen Webster Place Theatres on the North Side and the eight-screen River Run Theatres in south suburban Lansing.

M&R is to manage the six theaters being built at the Near North Side site of the Esquire Theatre, 58 E. Oak St. Those theaters are to open in early 1989.